Manifest Report 2010

The week leading up to Manifest was worthy of a novel. I didn't sleep, had an accident which left me with a tiny bone fracture, disbanded the Trinity Blood group (for those who don't follow dA, yeah, the group's not happening anymore), rushed a costume which wasn't even mine, and had my womantiems start the day right before the con. T__T

But in the end, I guess everything turned out alright, although there were a lot of hilarious (and not-so-hilarious) disasters leading up to it:

Our Vocaloid group playing dead at the con xD

Friday: Arrival in Melbourne

The week up to and including Friday was quite a disaster, even without mentioning everything I had already listed above. Ray rayfy_chan was part of a massive and epic FF Agito group in which he'd signed up to make everyone's pauldrons (24 pauldrons in all). Owing to the fact that at the beginning of the week right before the con he'd had none of them done, he asked me to make his Len (Vocaloid) costume for him. I was all OHSHIT (I sew really really slowly ... having him ask the week of the con wasn't nearly enough time), but somehow managed to get it done by taking some shortcuts with the costume. Looks alright as long as you don't stare at it up close haha.

Even with my having made the Vocaloid costume, by the time I got to Ray's house in the morning of our flight, he hadn't finished the pauldrons, his Agito costume NOR started packing. This was 3 hours before our flight OTL. All I had to do was have him wear the Len costume so I could fit it to him properly & then I was done (I finished this within an hour). But before we flew he had to finish the pauldrons and finish packing. He was still sewing an hour before our flight and I had to basically pull him away from the sewing machine so we could get going.

To make things worse, not only did he misplace his car keys in the mess, he was in charge of everyone's tickets and left printing out my boarding pass until the very last thing to do before leaving. And before we left we found that HIS PRINTER WAS NOT WORKING T___T we had to make a stop at his family friend's house and print it out there before we could actually leave for the airport uhuuuu T___T

So, no surprise, we missed our 3pm flight and had to pay $170 to switch to a later flight. It's not the airline's fault at all but dang, I might think twice before I decide to fly Tiger again if things cost that much for unexpected events >_>;; (another friend who flew to the con on Tiger went a few kgs over on their luggage weight and also had to pay almost $200 for the excess). Our new flight was at 7pm, so we hung around for 4 hours and met up with Christie moonblader and Minami minami_373, who were on the same flight and were staying at the hotel with us.

While we were waiting for the flight, Ray & I realized that in our frenzy that morning WE HAD BOTH FORGOTTEN OUR MANIFEST PASSES FML. His poor mother drove back home (45-minute trip) and drove back to the airport to bring them ... I'm still so grateful to her for instantly doing it without any grudge, reserve or complaint orz

The flight was delayed by about half an hour but we got to the hotel alright (although we were surprised to find that Tiger Airways had their baggage collection in this big shed >_>), and Christie, Minami & Ray worked on their Agito costumes while I helped out. It was actually quite funny (not on the night, but when we look back at it) because Christie & Minami were helping attach the velcro to the pauldrons and about an hour after they'd started they realized they'd done something wrong, meaning they pretty much had to start all over again Dx poor souls. Added to that Ray hadn't finished the buckles on his jacket either so he spent all night doing that ... I woke up by accident at 5am and saw him still sewing before I fell asleep again :( woke up again at 7am to find him sleeping on the hotel chair. Lol.

Saturday: Manifest Day 1

So after the four of us endured an uneasy few hours of sleep, we woke up to find this massive trail of red hair in the bathroom from Ray cutting his Agito wig D: it looked like a horror scene, so we put the "do not disturb" sign on the door LOL. We got ready with makeup, then got picked up by the lovely princealy and I helped out at their Agito photoshoot as the person who looked at the ref pics and positioned everyone :D Along the way, somehow Minami's blue folder with our Vocaloid tattoos inside it got lost D: (if anyone picked it up, please let us know??). Afterwards, we went to the con. It wasn't all that great for me personally since everyone else was in the Agito group meaning I had to spend 75% of the entire day by myself, but at least it gave me a chance to look around at all the con merch :D I rewore my Tsugai Kogarashi costume (which I haven't worn to a con yet) but as a solo outfit, since I didn't want to stress myself out making too many new costumes ^^

Probably not the best choice of cosplay since it was FREAKIN' FREEZING in Melbourne and it wasn't an easy costume to move around in (people kept stepping on it) but oh well orz

After realizing I couldn't get in to watch the cosplay competition because the line at the door was way too long (the line was still really long even when the competition was halfway done), I went and watched the LittleKuriboh panel (which was SO AWESOME btw, I love him so much and even if I didn't get to talk to him personally because he was surrounded by fans, it was a great pleasure seeing him live and hearing him talk and answer questions in character!). I'd also found out the Agito group won a prize at the comp, which was well-deserved after all the work put into it - congratulations guys!!

We were all tired by the end of the day so princealy drove the four of us back and then we all had room service food (which was surprisingly good o_o) at the hotel together. Ray cleaned up all the red wig hair in the bathroom (rofl) and we started making some fake blood in preparation for our Vocaloid group the next day. Ray got out his Len wig that he got from Erin rose_papillon (our Rin) and he put it on and it went down to his shoulders so he looked like some blond uke bish from a J-drama hahahahahah XD Christie went into styling mode and miraculously turned the flat wig into some smexy spikes, before we all turned in to sleep.

Sunday: Manifest Day 2

In the morning we woke up and found there was all this blond hair in the bathroom, which was pretty much a repeat of the day before LOL! There were some traces of fake blood in the sink too so we decided to put the do not disturb sign on the door again. However, the most disastrous thing that happened was that before we left Ray told us that Erin had called him late the night before (after Minami, Christie & I had fallen asleep) in a panic to tell him she'd given him the wrong wig. So she had the Len wig, and he had the Rin wig (which was now already totally cut & styled into Len). It was the reason why he looked like the blond uke J-drama bish when he wore it orz!

However, when we got to the con it turned out surprisingly alright, and Erin had straightened the spiky Len wig using hot water with a lot of difficulty. It was hilarious that somehow the Len wig was transformed into the Rin wig and vice versa and it still looked ok, even though both of the cosplayers involved were panicking a bit XD

We went ahead and did a photoshoot at the venue's grounds as good as we could manage while sticking to the theme (and without making it look like a con). We splattered the blood all over each other there and it landed on the concrete, it looked like someone had been killed there hahaha XD

We didn't enter the competition, but we watched it up until the Hakuoki skit of epic lulz which was what we were waiting for. The other three didn't get to see the merch the day before because they were busy with Agito so they went and had a look at the dealers' section while I followed along :D we spent the rest of the time hanging out with pretty much everyone afterwards, resting & chatting until we got kicked out, and went to Coles in our bloodstained costumes to pick up snacks lol. We went back to the hotel for an hour to shower & change and then went and had an epic hotpot dinner with all the sexy cosplayers (well, epic except for the rude megane-kun who was our waiter) before going home to sleep.

Monday: Tim Burton exhibition & Hellenic Republic

Monday was so amazing and relaxed. After the high-tension rush in the previous nights we welcomed a calm day of sleep and then met Tom aegwynn_aran who was spending our final night in Melbourne with us at the hotel. Tom had a meeting to go to but after he dropped off his baggage we separated and the rest of us went to the Tim Burton exhibition, which was amazing and educational *A* highly recommended for movie lovers and Tim Burton fans! Afterwards we had lunch at the pancake parlor and went shopping together in the Melbourne back streets where we came across some gorgeous little vintage shops <3 I got myself this lovely little cotton dress ^^

Later that night after a short visit to Min's hotel to check in on her (since she wasn't feeling well), a large group of us (including astellecia, clamwings, minhhhhh & kawak) went to the Hellenic Republic, one of George from Masterchef's restaurants :D because it wasn't in the central city it was a lot less expensive and the food was absolutely worth what we paid for it! Never tried Greek food before but this was a great experience, would totally go back if we went to Melbourne again. We went back to the hotel afterwards and had our first gossip session with Tom before we went to sleep.

Tuesday: Shopping & Home

We spent our last hours doing more shopping in Melbourne's back streets where all the vintage shops are (thanks rurumi for taking us around both days!!), and I got these two gorgeous little handbags and a little ruffly dress :D can't be bothered to take pics right now but you'll most likely see me wearing them eventually. I'm such a holiday shopping whore, I tend to spend hundreds/thousands of dollars on bags and shoes whenever I travel orz and I wouldn't have been able to restrain myself if I hadn't left most of my money inside my big luggage Dx

After lunch at this little Japanese restaurant we collected the rest of our baggage and went to the airport (we saw this massive cheap-ass warehouse-type building and I was like, "that looks like a shed. Are we at Tiger?" and Christie was like "... yep". XDDD) After the SUPREME FAIL in which we had to go into the plane from a set of steps while it was pouring (meaning there was a huge line of passengers out in the rain queueing to get in), we had a relatively drama-free flight back home.

And next con up is Animania. Since I've disbanded the TB group, I now have nothing to cosplay Dx suggestions? Ahh need to find something I can sew in 2 weeks. I would probably not go, except I have so many smexy people I want to see :(